Mobile phones have become iconic devices with the proliferation of iphones, Android phones and Blackberries.

They have gathered a critical mass now and you should get a mobile web site designed as soon as possible. The competition for attention is still manageable now. It will become worse as the days pass by.

Here are 15 tips for a great mobile website:

1. The phones have much smaller screen space and therefore you have to really cut down on the amount of information you should include on your web pages.
2. The phones work on much slower bandwidth even if they are on 3G. Again you should reduce the size of files, images and other elements to as small as possible.
3. Since the capacity of the phones vary widely, use progressive enhancement. This way you will have your site working fine off the most limited browsers and offer a great site with the more capable ones.
4. Attention span on a mobile site is really limited. Don’t try to tell everything and confuse the reader. You have to include your most salient points – the big hitters.
5. You might try this format – powerful headline, a paragraph of introduction text and a few bullet points followed by a call to action.
6. New page loads are taxing on the bandwidth, too much information on a single page is daunting. You have to strike a fine balance.
7. Advertise on the mobile networks. The clicks are still affordable.
8. Don’t forget to send the clicks to a mobile version of the landing page. Don’t drop the ball by sending the clicks to a desktop landing page which won’t show up clearly on the small screens.
9. Some people won’t be happy with the limited information on the mobile sites. Include a link to your main site so that they can see the whole story.
10. Mobile commerce is picking up very fast. Be ready to take advantage.
11. Make your forms as small as possible. They can’t fill up large forms with the mobile keyboard.
12. Including a touch-to-call or click-to-call button can be a terrific USP. They are working off a mobile phone after all and calling someone is the most natural thing to do.
13. Build a SMS list. SMS marketing, like email marketing, is a potential winner. However you need to use it responsibly or else, you will go down the email spammer route.
14. You must include a mobile sitemap and submit it to the search engines. How can we forget the search engines? They can send large number of people to your sites after all.
15. Setup auto-sensing and auto-redirection for mobile browsers on the main URL. Don’t split your branding efforts by advertising 2 different URLs.

You can rest assured of massive success for your mobile websites and unlock a vast new market by following these tips. Please share your success report in the comments section below.

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